Family mourns victim of Ladyville traffic knockdown

While there is nothing that can be done to reclaim a lost life, the family of a cyclist killed yesterday in a traffic accident in Ladyville is asking drivers to slow down and perhaps spare others the grief that they are now feeling.

Seventy year old Guatemalan national Saturnino Sosa was riding between miles nine and ten on the northern highway when the elderly man was knocked off his bicycle by a vehicle heading in the same direction. The impact was so great that Sosa’s body was thrown across the highway and landed at the foot of this lamp post.

Teresa Calderon, Witness/Area Resident
“It was a long screeching right, but as I tell you as you look up the first thing you see is the sun. So when we hear the screeching, normally you are expecting an accident right because of the speed and when I look up all I saw was the body going up.”

Sosa who worked as a watchman for the Belize Marketing Board was on his way to work. Ladyville police have since detained forty-five year old Rudolph Smith a driver for the postal service. Smith told authorities that he was driving his van towards Belize City when upon reaching the area, a man on a bicycle turned into his path and as a result he could not avoid the collision.

Walter Sosa, Son of the Deceased
“I think like it could maybe avoid because ah di speed ah di vehicle weh mi di go definitely he couldn’t live a life. Because, so far, when we see ah last night inna the morgue we see his neck bruk and part of his head bust up.”

“It look like his bicycle get hit first and lift him up inna the air because if you look pan top of the van, it look like the bicycle rake top of the hood. So I say the hit weh he get, he fly inna the air. We get one of the neighbours weh live round deh and she say she only see the bicycle inna the air.”

People in the area told News Five that the vehicle was going in excess of the prescribe speed limit of twenty-five miles per hour when travelling through the village.

Walter Sosa
“I know this driver, more like know exactly who he is – no, but I know he is up and down there every time because I drive for Bowen and Bowen, from El Cas to Haulover bridge, and I up and down almost everyday. And I see this guy sometime, I see like the speed weh he di go; I tell my sideman sometime, I say boy somebody wan get knock down from this guy right here because too much speed but I never know dah mi old man mi wan get it.”

The tragic accident has highlighted a growing concern for Ladyville residents especially those families living along the stretch of the highway and whose loved ones have been killed in similar incidents. Eight years ago, Teresa Calderon’s common law husband Victor Forman was knocked down and killed only a few yards away from where Sosa was hit.

Teresa Calderon
“You can stand here about fifteen minutes and you can see the vehicle them going up and down; nobody is concerned about the speed they are going right, and you always see it happen. Every time you hear the screeching of the tires and the worst thing you think about is an accident is going to happen.”

Ironically, our cameraman who was standing on the side of the highway getting his shots for this story, could have also been hit as this SUV travelling at a fast speed over took another vehicle at the same location where the accident occurred. The situation has not only claimed the life of Walter Sosa’s father but six years ago his thirteen year old sister Maria Del Carmen was also hit on her way home from school at the nearby intersection of Marage and Perez roads.

Walter Sosa
“Do something to this village because it is not the first time and like I always say, they do something after something happen but it shouldn’t be like that. They should do it before something like this happen, because couple years ago my lee sister get knock down to pan Perez road and they noh get bumps after the thing happen.”

Eva Perez, Wife of Deceased
“It’s shocking. When I hear about it, I say, a next one because the man daughter, they hit her right by the cut-off here…a young girl.”

Sadly the next person to die would be seventy-two year old Eva Perez’s husband Elijio Perez who was knocked down, again between miles nine and ten on the northern highway.

Eva Perez
“That place need a bump to slow down the traffic because even when I go to the seniors citizens meeting you have to be careful of crossing that road, very careful because even your foot get to the side they passing, they just want double. So is say, well I think that need a bump there because that’s the only way you could maybe slow down the traffic.”

Nothing comes out, you just – they just hit you like a dog and that’s it. Only the ones who have money well you could fight but otherwise if you have nothing you don’t … they don’t even look pan you. So I am very sorry for the person who is left behind.”

And, on another sad note, the Sosa family is appealing to the person who stole their father’s jewellery from around his neck as he lay dead on the highway. The two gold chains have an eagle and cross medals.

Walter Sosa
“If deh could please send it back, they could give it back to me and I give back to my sister. It’s nothing big, I mean big weh cost so much and thing but it’s good to have remembrance.”

“People noh want to say who tek the things but we get wah flash like one of the guys call me back pan my dad phone and he tell me I got the phone for your dad but I hope … he say I want mek you know noh no me tek di phone from your dad, he say I find it pan top of the pump of the gas station.”

Seventy year old Saturnino Sosa will be laid to rest on Friday afternoon following 1p.m. services at Iglesias Pentecostal Unida Hispania in Lords Bank Village.

Up to news time the police had not charged Rudolph Smith in connection with the accident.

In related news, details are still sketchy, but sometime after two this afternoon a helicopter landed at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. We understand the chopper brought a young female patient following a traffic accident that occurred on the Stann Creek Valley Road. According to authorities, a mother and daughter were knocked down near mile seventeen. Both are considered seriously injured and at the time were unable to talk to the police. The mother was reportedly transported to the Western Regional Hospital in Belmopan.